The Four Seasons
by Quantum Cat
Summary: Hierarchy of life: Demons on top. Everything else on the bottom. That's the creed that all demons follow. Though what would that make a demon sealed into a human? Demons weren't made to be humans, after all.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. This is purely for entertainment purposes, something I'm sure everyone can appreciate. **

**Chapter 1  
**

Amidst the haze and stifling heat, something moved. The steam, scalding hot to any mortal touch, swirled and centered on a single point. The vapor sizzled, as if the congregation was dangerous to itself. Water dripped from cracks in the roof, far above and hidden beneath a veil of darkness. The water pierced through the steam everywhere, and yet it did not dissipate.

Instead, it began to coalesce. It had no definite shape, and the contours of the thing changed as if uncertain of the final product. However, any doubt of its sentience was scattered as the oppressive presence intensified. This _thing _was alive.

There was a sound. It was the first in the chamber.

It was a strange noise. It broke through unseen walls and ripped a hole in the air.

And then, the white coat vapor fell. Or rather, it unrolled. Curling up at the edges, the sheet of steam, curved in upon itself, as if being pressed into a ball.

The steam, which had been covering the shape of something large and monstrous, kept crunching in, continuing the silent implosion. Another noise from the beast it had covered rattled the tiny ball, and for a moment it seemed as if it would unravel.

A perilous moment of stillness passed, and the beast began to regain its bearings. It knew that something was off about everything. In a single instant something had hurt it, actually hurt it! Something abominable had happened; a travesty against the very fabric of the world.

The demon fox, also known as the Kyubi, felt something lightly brush against its senses, which alarmed the beast. Never before had it felt something like this.

Meanwhile, the little vaporous ball continued to compress itself. It hung in mid-air, suspended by nothing and letting little impede its progress. It was unstoppable now, and perhaps some part of it was aware of that.

It was now tiny. Now smaller than a glass bead. In fact, that is exactly what it was.

The fox noticed the bead. Its large eyes, bigger than any man, focused on the miniscule object, and they shone with clinical curiosity. The crimson of the iris screamed silent war at the world, yet the fox felt no particular urge at the moment. Nothing like this had ever happened before. No matter how much it scoured its memory, the fox scrounged up no particular instance where such a strange series of events happened in this order.

The bead hung there. It was of clearest white, yet even that description did it no justice. It merely underplayed the sheer finality it emitted.

The fox could have gone on for years like that, observing the both wondrous and dangerous object without ever sating its curiosity for the knowledge. Anyone observing would have thought so as well, but something disturbed the scene.

An opaque hand plucked it out of the air, and the Kyubi's head snapped up in accordance, tracking every movement of that hand with unholy accuracy.

It followed the hand to an arm, and the arm to a body. The thing it saw was like something out of a pop out book. A humanoid of some sorts, its face grotesque and awe-inspiring, and just the sight of it sprang out at the fox, blocking any thought, any cohesive reaction. This thing, by far the most memorable entity the fox had ever encountered, did not heed the beast.

In fact, it seemed far more focused on the bead, which looked ever so small in its purplish rotting hands. The bead seemed to vibrate, as if in yearning for the creature. The creature, its face already showing off an abnormally large mouth, grinned, and that image was burned into the fox's mind for all eternity.

It held the bead between its forefinger and thumb, and brought it closer to its oblivion eyes. It inspected the bead for any defects, searching for some shallow scar that marred its perfection.

It seemed to the fox that it found none, for soon after its inspection was concluded, the creature brought out a small satchel. The thing looked ridiculous in its oversized hands.

Opening the satchel, the creature visibly licked its lips as it gazed inside. Even though it never understood them later on, the fox saw all the sin and vicious vices that gripped the creature that moment. And yet, it still did not feel fear that time.

The creature, the Death God, let out a silent howl of triumph as it dropped the bead in the satchel, and then closed it.

A sound that would deafen any human followed, and the demon fox felt an unearthly wind pick up from nowhere. It seemed to come from the small doorway on one side of the chamber it was in.

There was no resistance on the fox's part.

It was ironic. A creature that so many compared to a force of nature, one practically the very essence of an angry deity portrayed by an artist, blown back so easily by a very real force. It was a pity the demon literally did not understand or appreciate such a concept.

Despite the motion, the Kyubi did not crash into the far side of the chamber. It landed with fluid grace unbefitting of one so large. It merely continued its observation of its surroundings.

It realized then that the Death God had left, and that large bars of some sort blocked its way to the rest of the chamber.

The fox turned and circled its cage, and nudged the back wall almost unconcernedly. When it did not crumble away at the touch of its muzzle, it paused for a millisecond. It occurred to the fox that it was in an unpleasant situation.

The Kyubi let out a small snort. It was in a cage, then. How very…human.

No matter. It would fall easily enough given time and effort.

"How'd you like it, Kyubi?" said a voice outside the bars.

The demon fox turned to look at the source. It was very aware of how it was just a manifestation of sentient chakra, and so, the sensation of movement in an actual body had always been like moving in a too tight full body jumpsuit. The sensation was alien.

"Pretty good for a rushed job, don't ya think?" continued the creature, its voice calm and irritating to the fox.

As if turning off a switch, the inside of the cage blackened. Two gigantic orbs stood out in contrast to the darkness, each one focused on the new intruder.

It was a human, one of the ones that had been fighting it. The human looked undamaged for some reason, as if any of the wounds it had received had never happened. It was garmented with some odd second skin, the kind that all other humans seem to possess. Its top was covered in what appeared to be a fur rag that resembled the sun.

The human bent down and looked at the Kyubi, relaxed and as if assured of its safety. "You've caused a lot of suffering, you monster." It said softly, "You and all those other Tailed Beasts." The human bared its fangs suddenly, "But no longer."

What was it speaking of? Was this little thing responsible for the cage it was now in? The idea was ludicrous; it would have brought the demon fox into a giddy fit if it could have appreciated the finer points of possibility.

The human gave the fox a cheeky grin. "You're stuck here, in my son. Well, the real Minato's son. Man, you gotta love seals."

The human was quiet for a second. It sighed once, and then all was silent again. The fox pressed closer to the cage bars, and the apparition before it looked startled for a second. The Kyubi lunged at the toy with one of its enormous paws, teeth shown for a brief instant as it snarled.

The paw crashed down upon the visage of the human, but what the demon had been expecting would be a squelching sound following a scream, was nothing more than the wispy feeling of plunging through thick smoke.

"I'm dead already fox." called the voice of the human, echoing impressively throughout the chamber. "You can't kill me now. You can't kill anyone now."

The voice was getting fainter now. It was apparent to the Kyubi that the image of the human just now was just another aspect of the seal the original human used. How convoluted were these creatures?

The fox observed the bars of the cage with something akin to disgust in its eyes. Very well, it could wait. Demons had nothing to fear from time, let alone humans.

* * *

The streets of Konoha were in dire need of some D-rank missions.

Despite it being the strongest of the five great villages, Konoha had never sported as much an advanced environment as the more modern cities had. A lot of its funding had been put into more dire and necessary things such as the mining of some particular ore for weapon production, or in making sure its soldiers never suffered through debilitating things as starvation. A lot of it was also spent on the Academy, towards raising evermore powerful ninja with each generation.

Now, however, with peace reigning between the villages (mostly), the money was exploring new outlets, and so, citizens of Konoha were finally experiencing those lavish conveniences that nobles and merchants had entertained for several years already. Thing's like sewer systems and improved medical facilities were more common nowadays than they were years ago, but there were still those holes of times gone by.

One such feature was that a great many of the roads in Konoha were not paved. Dirt, kicked and pounded into a hard surface, still dominated a large part of village's streets, sullying the clothes of many, and driving many housewives to petition for better roads or even to order D-rank missions to pave them. They wrung their hands raw at times just to get the stains out, only for them to do so again the next day.

It was always one of those mission scrolls that somehow got shunted to the side in favor of more dire things such as a lost dog or groceries that needed to be done.

One individual though, did not mind the dirt on his clothes. In fact, he welcomed it. The more on him, the better; he felt it'd help. Such a practice would seem repulsive to those who contented themselves with a cleanly household, but this young one could not care less.

The young one looked at the groups of people shuffling back and forth across the street. This part of town always gave him the heebie jeebies, but it definitely was the easiest place to get some stuff. Quietly, the young boy looked up at the adults passing by, taking in everything with a wondrous awe as people went about their daily lives. His eyes locked on to one particular person, a hunched over old lady carrying a bag of vegetables from the market.

She was a crone, from what he could tell, and easy pickings too. Hunched over and slow, the woman was walking with a shuffling step that made it look like she wasn't even lifting her feet off the ground. She wore a purple floral dress that was too large for her, and it showed by how tattered and laden with dirt it was at the hem.

The young boy, whose name was Naruto, grinned as he watched the lady pass him. His sunny blond hair stood up in spikes around his head, defying gravity with its urchin like shape. Normally his hair would draw attention to him right away, but this time he had help.

Naruto, looked behind into an alley with several trashcans. Hidden by these trash cans was a young girl. She was taller than him by a couple of inches, sporting several curls of plain brown hair, with a straight faced look to her to match. Her name was Saya or Senya or something like that. He didn't know really, now that he thought about it.

Maybe he should ask her?

'_Nah,' _he thought after a second, _'don't need to.'_

He focused on the crone across the street. He grinned once again, already anticipating the sweet taste of triumph.

"Ready?" he asked quietly over his shoulder. So far, no one had taken notice of him just sitting there, but he did not want to try his luck.

He heard the response but barely. It was broad day light, and there was no ninja around as far as he could see, but both of them were acting as if everything they valued hung in the balance of this operation of theirs. Naruto could not shake the feeling of being watched as he casually walked across the street, head ducked low so as to not draw too much attention…yet.

He heard someone mutter something nearby but he ignored it. He kept walking, trying not to be too obvious that he was heading for the woman with the vegetables. Clenching his fists anxiously, Naruto licked his lips as the sight of the bag came into view. His stomach gnawed at him, but he fought it down. He was literally shaking with anticipation.

This was fun.

There was no signal for the next part of the plan, but the girl did not need one. All she needed to do was come running at the old lady, crash into her, and in the confusion that would follow, Naruto would just pick up some of the stuff that fell on the ground, which, in his mind, she would not miss. No old lady used up so many vegetables for herself, he reasoned.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" screamed the girl as she shot from her spot in the alley, all gangly arms and legs, with no grace whatsoever.

People's heads turned to look the little brown rocket. Conversations stopped in midsentence, suddenly deemed second best compared to the little girl. The whole damn street stopped to look at the girl, as if a screaming child was the newest invention the world had lugged out.

Naruto suddenly didn't like her all that much.

The girl dodged people in her way, and ran straight towards the old lady, unyielding and blind ignorance to danger etched into her expression. She kept yelling, waving her arms above her head like some miniaturized Spartan. Everything about her screamed of guileless determination.

The old lady had stopped, though one would have to look closely to tell. Her wrinkled old face turned to look at the brunette on a collision course with her. Her eyes widened in shock as the girl showed no sign of stopping, and it was too late for her to move out of the way.

The girl for her part did not falter. There was a need in her expression that bespoke of more than just hunger. Once she was close enough, the girl jumped forwards into the woman. The younger of the two hit the older one and knocked her off balance, and both of them fell to the ground. The old lady's cry of surprise was cut short as she met the ground, all flesh and bone.

Naruto had to smother a cheeky grin at the sight. Whether he liked her or not, his partner was really good at this.

"Oh, oh, ooooh!" wailed the woman on the ground, who was still being weighed down by a youngster too dirty to be out in decent company. "Ooooooh!"

The girl disentangled herself from the woman's arms and legs, her head and body aching from the impact. "Sorry!" she cried, "I'm so sorry! I-I should have b-been looking where I was going....but there was this guy and h-he had a knife and I was scared and he looked so scary a-and I was by myself…"

Yet the old lady did not pay her pleas of forgiveness any need, for her own body was protesting in reaction to the fall. Her hip felt like it had been knocked up to her chest, her chest felt like it had been crushed, her arms refused to move, and her lungs screamed in effort to bring air back into her system. The world just wouldn't stop spinning, and she couldn't hear anything except for a loud ringing.

It took only a moment for people to begin to move. Men dropped what they were holding to help the old woman to her feet, and several women took the young girl aside, making cooing noises and all those things they generally did when faced with something cute and terrified. A young man in his twenties volunteered himself to diagnose the old woman, citing past training as a genin to do any necessary first aid and such.

It was such a sudden influx of activity and effort that Naruto was momentarily shocked by it. A rough shove to his shoulder brought him back as others made their way to the group. Amidst the vivacity of the show, a simple spectacle that would warm the hearts of anyone, Naruto began to enact his plan. Pushing his way through, he pretended he was just looking at the crone or the girl like everyone else, but closer and closer he got to the bag of vegetables that lay forgotten on the ground.

'_Suckers!' _he thought mischievously, feeling a certain level of satisfaction from a plan gone right.

The bag was heavier than he thought, but nothing he would be able to handle. Now all he had to do was get away.

"Hey you!" yelled an older man as he caught sight of Naruto. "What're you doing with that?"

Naruto did not have to think about it to realize that he had been caught. Scrambling to get proper hold on the bag, the whiskered boy began to run as fast as he could, tripping up at first from the weight he held.

By now people had begun to realize something else was afoot, and the noise and confusion had risen to new levels. Eyes were drawn to the blond who was running away and people tripped over themselves and each other as they scrambled to catch up with the young fugitive. The young girl from before was clutched on to by the older woman, as if to protect her from the young thief.

And the old woman had not yet ceased her wailing.

Chaos reigned in that street, but soon enough people began to leave the mass and chase after the boy, though it was only five or six that did. That was five or six more than he had planned on escaping from, but Naruto did not look back to count. His little hands gripped the strap of the bag tightly, and he swung it over his shoulder so that he wore it like a pack.

Which, he later realized, was not the best thing to do. That had just made it easier for others to grab him from behind, and soon Naruto found himself being lifted up from the ground by the very bag he was trying to escape with. His short legs ran on empty air as he was lifted from the ground with veritable ease.

"You know, you shouldn't steal from others. Especially from old ladies crossing the street." said a voice lazily.

Craning his head, Naruto tried to get a good look at his captor, only to find that his face was being obscured by some weird looking mask and dark cloak. Naruto struggled uselessly in the man's hold, arms waving and legs kicking at anything.

It was both comical and pitiful. His whole plan shot to hell so easily by this weirdo! Why couldn't things ever be easy for once?

"She wasn't crossing the street!" he yelled, hoping to gain the upper ground somehow, "She was just walking!"

His captor's response was to shake him like a rag doll, causing him to feel sick and some of the vegetables to fall through a new hole in the bag. After gaining some of his bearings back, Naruto aimed a kick at the man's crotch, only for it to fall short by a large amount. Sometimes he hated being short.

"Let me GO!" he screamed, shaking himself viciously.

"Hmm? Be quiet would you?" said the man with the mask, "These nice men want to talk to you about something."

Turning his head, Naruto saw the men looking at him angrily. His hopes fell as he saw the looks on their faces. Thieving wasn't dealt with leniently anywhere, but that particular district was one of the harsher ones. He should know, he had the spankings to prove it.

Not willing to stick around any longer, Naruto decided to forego the bag. Twisting himself appropriately, Naruto slicked out of his too-large shirt and told his legs to run faster than they ever had in his life. But not before grabbing one of the vegetable that had fallen to the ground, and stuffing it in his shorts.

And so, he left, with a carrot in his shorts, and without a shirt to cover the rest of him up. His laughter rang throughout the dumbstruck street, as he made a turn and vanished from sight.

"After him!" yelled one of the men, an older man with too much facial hair. He looked to be the kind of guy that didn't like leaving things halfway done.

They were all stopped from advancing though, by the masked one who'd stuck his arm out in front. "Oh, let the kid go." he said, nonchalance tracing his tone, "It's not like he mortally offended you or anything."

The man looked uneasy. He wanted to go after the kid, but this man before him was obviously a ninja, and he really did not want to cross one of those. After doing a mental checklist of what he valued more (his principles or his safety), he suddenly found that he was acting irrationally.

There may have been a small altercation involving sharp pointy objects and a scary voice, but that was obviously just embellishment of whoever retold the story.

Meanwhile, Naruto was making his break for the rendezvous point. His heart was beating faster than his body could keep up, and for several moments he knew nothing else other than the feeling of the ground beneath his feet as he tore through the thinning crowds of people. His life had always been one surprise after another and that back there had been no exception.

As he got closer and closer to the meeting point, Naruto began to slow down. It was only then, as he began to walk normally, that he realized that he was almost collapsing from the sheer exertion of the run. Soon enough, he did, and in his oxygen deprived state, everything just began to seem funnier. Naruto began to giggle, and he clamped his hand over his mouth to stop making noise, but soon it was a full-blown laughter and he could not control himself.

He laughed until tears came out of his eyes. He laughed at the world, at himself, at the carrot that was still in his shorts, at the old lady on the ground, at everything he could think of. Ecstatic snorts left him as he thought of the masked man who'd caught him.

Life, Naruto decided, was good. Sure people ignored him or called him names, but one day they would all change their view of him. He still did not know what he would do to achieve this, but he knew he would do it.

Still chuckling, Naruto pulled himself together and began to wait for the girl.

The rendezvous point was beside a smallish warehouse, one that was no longer full of rations and weapons. It was a leftover from the last Great War, where the distribution of essential things such as food had to be properly controlled and defended in case of enemy attack. It doubled as a bunker for civilians in case of enemy attack, but not one of any particular safety.

Regaining his breath, Naruto leaned against the wall, fighting off the exhaustion that was gripping him. He got his second wind soon enough and before he knew it, he felt like he hadn't run for his life at all.

He waited for what felt like hours there. Sitting atop an empty crate, Naruto waited for the girl to come back. Once the sun was setting, he began to wonder if she got lost. It certainly would not be good if that happened. The two of them had to be back at the orphanage by nightfall.

After a couple more minutes, he really began to worry about her. What if the adults had figured it out? What if they'd decided to punish her? What if she sold him out?

He was almost bolting from that place before he saw her come around from the front of the warehouse. She was huffing and puffing deeply, her face cherry red from the effort it took to get her there. Sweat made her hair cling to her skin, and her eyes were unfocused and she seemed to be swaying on her feet.

"Finally," said Naruto, jumping down from the crate, carrot in hand, "I thought you weren't going to show. I was going to eat this thing all by myself."

"Sorry," gasped the girl, "but those ladies wouldn't let me leave." She made a face as she thought of what they wanted to do to her, "They kept trying to give me a bath. I only got to escape because some of the ninja showed up."

"Eh? The ninja?" Naruto asked, "What'd they want?"

The girl shrugged. "I dunno, but they looked like they were looking for someone."

Naruto gulped. "Strange, huh?" he said unconvincingly.

The girl shrugged again. Naruto really needed to find out her name, he couldn't just go on referring to her as 'the girl' without sounding like a jerk to himself.

"Forget them," said the girl, "did you get it?"

The blond boy only shook his head. "Not everything. Some guy with a weird mask took most of it."

The girl only looked at him strangely, before she let out a frustrated noise like a mewling cat. "Aww man! That sucks."

Naruto wanted to feel sorry, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. He had brought something with him, hadn't he? In his mind, that was enough reason to celebrate.

He showed her the carrot in his hand. Some dirt had gotten onto it, but nothing a little water could not fix. They just needed to eat it before they went back to the orphanage.

The girl looked at the carrot appreciatively, and then at his shirtless state. "Where'd you keep this thing?" she said as she inspected it closer, "It smells funny."

"In my shorts." he said clueless as to her sudden disgust, "I had to keep it somewhere no one would see it."

"That's….that's sick!" cried the girl as she pushed the carrot away from her, "You are _soooo_ disgusting!"

Naruto was confused with her sudden change in demeanor. It was still a carrot, right? It was still one of those things people would put in a stew to make it taste good, right? So it should still taste good too. There was nothing wrong with it, as far as he could see. It was still orange and long and even had the green thingy on it too.

The young boy was nonplussed with the girl, and he tried to convey his confusion as eloquently as possible.

"It's still a carrot right?"

"That's not the point, you jerk!" screamed the girl, "I can't eat that now, and neither should you!"

"Really?" he said as he brought the carrot closer as if to analyze it, "Why?"

The girl stopped screaming and looked at him as if he grew several extra appendages. She didn't say anything for a good second, before she snorted and turned around. She began muttering several not nice things about him under her breath, but Naruto heard none of them.

"Hey don't you want some of this?" he said as he raised the carrot above his head, as if offering some priceless piece of jewelry to a pauper. "Saya? Don't you want some of this?"

"My name's Sayoko you jerk!" yelled the girl back at him. She said nothing else as she turned around the corner and vanished from sight.

Naruto was speechless for a couple of seconds before her regained his composure and muttered angrily, "Weirdo."

He really didn't see a problem with this. If the girl was a weirdo, he really didn't want to be near her, especially if some of her weirdness rubbed off on him. He already had troubles with most of the other kids and adults, and being estranged even further was not on his list. Besides, that just meant all the more for him.

"Bottom's up." He said to himself as he looked at the carrot. Bringing it closer to his mouth he closed his eyes and bit into it, his young teeth somehow piercing the touch exterior skin of the vegetable.

However, before it even touched the back of his throat, he spit it back out. "Ewww!" He said as he wiped his mouth viciously, "Ugh! That's nasty!"

Naruto looked at the carrot again, suddenly seeing it in a whole new light. Not only was it hard to bite into, but it quite literally tasted horrible. He couldn't understand how stew could taste so good with something like this in it. There was simply no way!

He looked at it a bit more before he threw it to the ground angrily.

He did not look back as he went about his way towards the orphanage.

**End Chapter 1**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way. Masashi Kishimoto is the rightful creator and owner of the series, and in no way am I claiming ownership of his intellectual property with this fic. It is made purely for the entertainment of others.**

**Chapter 2**

It had become common in Konoha for people jump out of the way at the sound of a young scratchy voice telling them to. It was not a matter of respect or obedience, but more a matter of self-preservation, as whenever there was such a shout, a small running boy would soon follow. Often times, the boy would be keep on yelling for people to move out of the way, not even giving a second glance to those he'd nearly knocked over.

Often times even, he would curse at those who did not move out of the way.

It was his fault for taking a route through the market district, as that place was generally packed with people early in the morning. It was also his fault for spending too much of his time at night training and not enough sleeping. As such, whenever he would wake up, he would be panicky and tired; he would promise himself that he would go to the store to buy an alarm clock but he never did, because he would then spend what little money he had on candy or comics.

However, even though the boy had no one but himself to blame, he did not acknowledge this as much as he should have. It was true that he was young and had yet to adjust to living by himself in his own apartment, but he would find the reason he was late was some old fart holding up too much space on the road or some dog having chased him.

The world was out to get him in his eyes, but Naruto felt spurred on by his numerous adversaries instead of discouraged. It gave him strength to know that so many people were out to take him down, but always failed to do so.

Even so, this did little to endear him with the citizens of Konoha.

"Outta the way, ya morons!" He yelled, as he weaved in and out of the crowd. "I'm late! I'm late!"

People did not have a chance to reply as the suddenly found themselves pushed or shoved by others as they instinctively got out of the way of the little blond menace. Cries of outrage and insults followed the boy as he streaked through the market district, but all the response they received was laughter.

Naruto kept up his gaily laughter and moved on. Little made him hesitate and those that did found themselves screaming at the boy moments later.

After sufficiently angering dozens of people with his dash for punctuality, he finally saw the Academy. Naruto let out a big whoop and forced his short legs to run even faster. According to the amount of people on the grounds, it was already time for a break, so now he would be able to sneak back into class and act as if he had always been there.

Besides he wanted to see if that kid with the dog, and those two other guys would want to ditch class to go play kick-the-can. The dog-boy always managed to win, while Naruto and the other two would lose. Today, Naruto had a good feeling about how things would go, and he was determined to win.

Snickering to himself about his future victory, Naruto made his way over to a wooden fence that lined the back part of the Academy grounds. It would be too suspicious if he just waltzed right in from the front, and he could not jump over the wall or anything yet, but the fence had a loose board that slid to the side like a door.

Sliding just a bit to the side, Naruto peeked through and tried to see if any adults were looking. All he found were some of the kids playing soccer or just talking. Heartened by this, he slid it open as quietly as possible, and began to squirm his way through the opening. He may have been small, but even he had to suck in his gut whenever he came passed through this entrance.

A shadow suddenly fell over Naruto, but he just passed it off as a cloud, without even taking notice of the shadow's shape.

"Wonderful of you to join us Naruto." said Iruka, who was standing on top of the fence.

Naruto yelped and jumped, he was only halfway through the hole, and the surprise caught him off guard. He felt the side of his body hit the rest of the fence painfully, and he knew he was in trouble without having even to look at his teacher's face.

"Heheh…hi sensei!" Naruto exclaimed as he looked up, nervous look on his eyes as he forced a smile on to his face. "I was just...you know…um…"

By now, a large amount of the kids had stopped what they were doing and were looking over at Iruka and Naruto, who for all purposes, was stuck in the fence. Naruto noticed but felt a bit put out that they caught him like that. It seemed the only attention he received was the embarrassing kind. The girls were even giggling at him!

"Got anything to say for yourself?" Iruka asked calmly, a strange smile on his face.

"Err…I'm stuck?" Naruto supplied helpfully.

Iruka raised an eyebrow as if to say "Liar" but his expression did not change. After a couple more seconds, he gestured for Naruto to get out, as he knew the boy was not really stuck. Naruto, after seeing that his teacher did not believe him, heaved a great sigh and climbed out of his spot in the fence.

"Done?" asked Iruka, still wearing that strange smile. "Good." Then, quick as a flash, he slapped the back of Naruto's head. "You idiot!"

The next thing Naruto knew the back of his head hurt like hell and everyone was laughing or giggling at him. His was dizzy but that quickly passed as he regained his balance and looked around him. Smiling a stupid grin, he began walking towards the main building, where he was sure Iruka was going to lecture him on some boring thing or another.

Imagine his surprise when he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder almost painfully, and squeeze. Turning around, Naruto swallowed nervously as he the anger his teacher displayed.

"You're not going anywhere, kid." He said, a threatening message in every syllable, "If you think that skipping class is so fun, how about I just tie you upside down on that tree there? I hear you like to compete with Kiba about who can last the longest. Well, consider this training."

Later on, after passing out and throwing up, Naruto was untied from the tree. Iruka had always been one for strange and unusual punishments, but this has been particularly effective. It was not that Iruka singled the boy out, it was just that most of the time the kid never stopped his mischief.

This time though, Iruka knew the message came through. He knew this because the next morning he saw the blond boy make it in on time, though just barely. The boy came in half-asleep and exhausted, but that did not stop him from muttering to himself and cursing the existence of alarm clocks.

* * *

When Jiraiya had said Naruto had to defeat a piece of paper, the boy had taken it as an insult to his capabilities as a ninja. Of course, Jiraiya had purposely held back the fact that a certain seal was on the piece of paper. The little caricature betrayed none of the danger it represented to the kid, and Naruto had boasted of passing the challenge in under a minute.

Now, as the orange clad boy struggled to maintain consciousness, some part of him could not help but feel embarrassed at not being able to back up his words, but the majority of him was too preoccupied to care. Struggling to rip the thing off his mouth, Naruto swore he would get back at the man for doing this to him.

He was on his knees, and before him stood his teacher, unscathed and unruffled by the boy's earlier attempts to get him. Jiraiya stood tall and firm as he looked at his fallen pupil, who was valiantly fighting against the piece of paper choking him.

The idea was simple. Put a seal on him that restricted airflow, and voila, one unconscious genin with a bruised ego. Simplicity rarely dictated practicality however, because the seal was hardly anything but.

It looked like a sutra from his point of view, and in a way, it was. Except instead of ghosts, it repelled air.

Earlier, Naruto had the great idea of learning seals. Obviously, he had seen enough of all the 'cool' things seals could do such as trap demons, make explosions, hide an entire freaking village….and after a bit of review decided that that was something he wanted to learn.

Now, here he was, learning the barest of the basics; suffocating because a piece of paper cut off all the air from going in or out. There was nothing fancy about it; he was losing because he just could not breathe.

The seal covered the entire lower part of his face, blocking his nose and his mouth, and it seemed to have melded with his skin, because it just would not come off. Naruto had long ago given up on the physical part, already seeing that pure brute force was not going to remove it. At first, it did not seem that much of a challenge, now only a minute or so later he was panicking.

He had tried channeling chakra to his mouth, but the result was typically disappointing. All he got was a warm feeling from the seal, and an amused snort from his teacher, who silently observed the boy with ever-increasing mirth in his eyes.

'_Think, think, think!' _Naruto thought to himself, achieving nothing despite the message, _'Calm down and think!' _

The jinchuuriki could not however. His very attempts to calm down were only docking precious seconds off the clock, and thus he worried even more. Thoughts of failure lurked beneath the surface of his brain and he urged himself to come up with something, not knowing where to start even.

Chest hurting, and lungs screaming, Naruto tried to stand up from the ground, but found he was not nearly as strong as usual, and could only slump to the side from the effort. Idly he wondered if that was all he had, and a feeling of defiance rose within him at the thought.

A pool of strength and power as of yet untapped emerged, and the teen immersed in it, relishing in the soothing feeling it brought to his body, but acutely aware it was only temporary. Little currents of energy flowed through his body, almost sizzling with arcs of electricity across his skin.

He put his hands up to his face then, and looked for some indication of where to start. There was no warmth or tangible marks to the paper, but Naruto did feel a brush of chakra around certain places. An idea instantly came to him as he suddenly remembered his battle against Neji. If the Hyuga could disrupt chakra in certain places, then maybe he-

A large hand suddenly clamped around his wrist, wrenching his hand from the seal, and temporarily shocking Naruto out of his concentrated state.

"You moron," Jiraiya said, shaking his head disappointedly, "you were thinking of doing a bastardized form of the Gentle Fist, right?"

Naruto shook his head vehemently, only slightly embarrassed at being so obvious; they had been traveling for six months already, so expecting the man not to know something about the teen would have been ridiculous.

"Liar," said the old sage, "You'd probably have done more damage than good, with your luck."

The liar in question made a face, as if to say something along the lines of "Hey" or "No, I wouldn't". It was cute, really, because it seemed for a moment he entirely forgot he had not had air for several minutes already. This quickly changed as the weak-in-the-knees feeling returned, and the boy found himself suspended by the arm, while his teacher looked down with no sympathy whatsoever.

'_Dammit Pervy Sage!' _Naruto screamed in his head, _'Help me out already then!'_

Instead, the man let go of the boy, letting the rest of him fall unceremoniously and end up looking like a marionette with its strings cut off. The blond struggled feebly to lift himself off the ground, but his strength was being sapped faster than he could gather it, and very soon, his eyes began sagging off into unconsciousness.

From his vantage point, Jiraiya observed his student. Some part of him realized he should be disappointed that the boy did not grasp the concept, but another was actually glad the kid did not. It would have been quite the downer if Naruto had. Minato had gotten it right, and he never really seemed to be the same after that lesson.

It had been fitting then (or so he thought afterwards), that Jiraiya mastered seals under the tutelage of his old teacher Sarutobi Hiruzen. That particular branch of jutsu was his curse and one that, despite how many times people eulogized it, he would gladly trade in for something else, however mediocre the skill. The philosophy that accompanied Sealing was one he wished to forget.

Now that Naruto finished resisting, Jiraiya took a good look. The genin's face looked pale, the skin now sporting a very faint tinge of blue, and his eye fluttering weakly as he still struggled. Jiraiya crouched down and felt for a pulse, acting far too nonchalant for someone who was witness to his godson's suffocation. After a brief pause he found it, and after sufficiently satisfying that clinical curiosity that propagated people to search for death, Jiraiya removed the seal and ungraciously ripped the paper off Naruto's face.

Almost immediately, the boy began choking. He let go of the breath he had held for so long, and caught himself inhaling and exhaling at the same time. His body jerked, as if the influx of air was a kick to the chest, but the shaking was grateful and unblemished with resentment. All that mattered to the kid then, was that he could breathe. The title of Hokage could be offered right then, and it was likely the feeling simply would not compare to finding that he was still alive.

Time passed, and Jiraiya decided that it was time to set up camp. The two had been traveling for hours before Naruto had come up to him and proposed the idea of Seals, but that little break had turned into a massive detour. The veteran ninja had been prepared for that though, but nonetheless, cursed his student for making him sleep with nature again. Sannin though he may be, he was still a man, and being one required satisfying certain needs.

Settling down on the branch of a tree with full view of the camp, the white-haired Sannin gave himself up to the daunting task of writing a report to Tsunade he had been putting off for several days already. Initially she had asked for weekly reports, but after him essentially flipping her off by doing them only a fortnight, the topic had not raised between the two at all.

Jiraiya was sure there was going to be hell to pay later, but there always was with her. It was one of her better qualities in his opinion.

After an hour or two, the dreaming Naruto began to stir from his slumber. With a few quirky motions and a yawn, the boy opened his eyes and found to his surprise -and some displeasure- that the seal on his mouth was not present anymore. He was a mix of feelings at the prospect, but he let it slide. He could always try again later.

"Up and at 'em sleeping beauty," cried his teacher, smiling jovially as he walked towards the boy, surreptitiously hiding what seemed to be pieces of paper, "guess who's doing dinner tonight?"

"Eh?" Naruto said, taking his eyes off the suspicious papers, "Wait- what!"

Jiraiya's grin widened as he dangled the boy's money purse, aptly name Gama-chan, in front of him. "Weeeell, unless you don't want me to keep your little friend all to myself for the next town we come across, you're the one that's making dinner."

Naruto sputtered indignantly, trying to come to grips with the fact that once again a member of the Sannin violated him. Sure, his old teacher would try to motivate him sometimes by pledging empty promises of ramen for a year, but taking his money was still crossing the line, and going against the entire code of bonding mandatory of apprenticeships.

"Go make it yourself ya freakin' perv!" Naruto shouted suddenly as he jumped up to grab Gama-chan, only for Jiraiya to push him back with a foot.

It felt like a kick to the stomach, but the genin did not let it deter him too much. That was his money dammit!

"Tsk, tsk, Naruto. Surely you should know me by now?" Jiraiya taunted, his prize still held high as he took a step back. "Besides, it's punishment for not learning the lesson."

"Wha- but I hardly ever get it right on the first try!" Naruto shouted. "Why should this time be any different?" He made no mention of his earlier boast, though both of them remembered it clear as day.

"Oh, you'll learn kid." Jiraiya answered, still smiling yet somehow more serious than before, "And you'll realize why when you do."

Naruto gave him a strange look as he contemplated what the older man said in his mind. It was not the first time his teacher ever gave him such cryptic answers, but they rarely made sense to him. "Whatever," he muttered, dusting his clothes as best as he could, he begin to walk away. "You're having fish tonight and that's it!"

"Make sure it _is_ fish this time!" Jiraiya called back.

Shrugging helplessly at his student's attitude, Jiraya decided to finish his report. While normally he would not go to the length of spending more than an hour on a mission report, issues surrounding Naruto rarely were so simple. Information regarding the boy had to be protected, and letting others know how much, and what, the kid was learning always left a bad taste in his mouth.

"I've been doing this way too long." He muttered as looked over the report. His lip curled unpleasantly as he thought of the problems surrounding the kid. "And the brat doesn't even appreciate what I do for him."

The old man sighed. It was a thankless job, but one he had long ago learned to accept.

Once he was done, he summoned a toad and told him what to do. Afterwards, Jiraiya slipped a piece of candy into his webby hands dismissed him. Dusk was already at hand, and there was no sign of Naruto anywhere. Given it had only been a couple of minutes though, Jiraiya was not worried.

'_Now, where to next?' _thought the man as he spread out a map before him. It was a traveler's map and had none of the topological statistics of common ninja ones, but it was still marked with several notes near certain spots. _'I can't just spend the entire time in Fire Country, even with the village far as it is.'_

He eyed map carefully. They were currently on the border between Fire and Waterfall Country. That of course, was far too close to Rice Country for his liking, but that just made the Hidden Waterfall an even better candidate for information on Orochimaru and the Sound. Therefore, he had sacrificed a little bit of safety so he could catch a whiff of whatever his old teammate was planning. The snake may have had a new apprentice, but that did not mean he was free from governing his village.

The results produced were less than lackluster, in his opinion. The Hidden Waterfall had no real treaty with the Leaf, and as such, there was not a lot of tension between them and the Sound. They had no real need to go through the effort of acquiring more information on Orochimaru than usual, even if he was a missing nin. The information trade went on per usual, but in the end, Jiraiya felt like he had been cheated.

There was nothing to suggest of any unusual activity on Orochimaru's part, which really pissed Jiraiya off. The man had the gall to invade the Leaf Village, and now acted as if he brought the wrong kind of tea to a book club. At least some skirmishes on trade merchandise would have been nice, but the man had somehow organized it so that his village could sustain itself on missions, even when there was no place to file for a request.

Jiraiya suspected some foul play was at hand, but he could not make any conclusive judgment just yet. It was just as likely Orochimaru was planning to increase his power base even further before he acted out just yet. He was not going to propose an alliance, otherwise he would be seen as weak, so soon after the unveiling of his village, and chaos would follow.

The Snake Sannin was playing a dangerous game of chicken with the Leaf. War had been declared yet nothing had come of it, because it was more of a trite excuse for both of them to lick their wounds and wait for the other to strike. Of course, if any of the other countries approached them as a threat, then things would get messy quickly.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Jiraiya looked at the map a bit longer before he decided their next destination. They would cut straight through the top edge of Fire Country this time heading east, before they turned and entered the countries north. Lightning Country would be their destination, and from there, Mist Country.

With that decided, the toad sage rolled over onto his back to stare at the sky, and began wondering when life got so complicated.

Decades ago, his goal had been to become a famous novelist who could truly capture the essence of ninja life. Now, here he was, working as the intermediary between the Leaf Village and everyone else, training his godson so he would not be slaughtered like an animal. One of his teammates defected, and the other one now held the highest position in their village.

He placed the map over his eyes, closed them, and prayed that Naruto ended up better than his godfather somehow.

* * *

The world was a panorama of sounds and sights, and to the fox, nothing would ever change this. It was just that the majority of the things could not hold its attention any more than trees could talk. The outside world was nothing but a place, and places were tedious without the creatures. Its own experience could attest to that.

The Kyubi observed the events unfolding outside. Little by little, the information trickled down through the complexities of the seal, and it all played out in its mind's eye.

It watched as the human fished in the stream. The demon disparaged the idea of tools but was intrigued by the notion of them. Its jailor stabbed the little floppy things with its sharp stones.

Fish, it reminded itself. Those floppy things were fish, and the stones were called kunai, useless rocks that paled in comparison to claws. The human did not have claws however. The Kyubi found that forever odd.

Little could be said of its container. Nothing in particular aside from its position in the world as the Kyubi's jailor made it stand out among the millions it had seen. It feared death, and had that same undistinguishable habit of communicating trademarked by so many sentient creatures. It could not destroy mountains with its own power, it did not level masses of beings with its tail, and it lacked one of those even. It represented the pitiful race that apparently dominated the world, and it could not even fathom the extent of its existence.

It was baffling. Normally such conundrums were solved easily, but the Kyubi could not revel in its urges of carnage anymore, and as such was left to think. Thinking had proven to be an almost surprising thing, after so long of blissful numbness. The haze that had been lifted from its mind, the sheer indelible absence of it was like a drug now. Time passed, but the Kyubi took no notice of it at first, too caught up with its new toy. Then, suddenly something happened.

Something so very perplexing, but wondrous as well.

The human it was contained in drew on its power. Of course, the Kyubi was its own power, and so, part of it had been dragged as well.

The experience of the split was shocking and unique. There was still the connection between the- chakra, was it? - And the original, but the bypassing of the seal had put the two on different planes of existence altogether. The Kyubi had been inside the seal for the most part, but part of it had actually interacted with the world once more.

At the time, the demon had no discernible way of expressing itself, nor could it understand why it felt the need to. The human had used it in combat and suddenly, thought brought upon the realization that this was something new and interesting, something it had never experienced before.

There had been that human that commanded the trees with its power, but the vivacious energy that flowed through them was most certainly not the demon's own. The Kyubi at the time cared little for the implication of something greater, but time in the seal had brought it to experience things that freedom never could.

It had come to several conclusions. None of which had been particularly appealing.

Now, it observed the human work and push itself, somehow feeling that observing the two-skinned beast would shed light on its doubts.

The human would mutter things at odd periods during its task of….fishing. It seemed to resent the other human that had assigned the task. A trend the fox had noticed in its human was that it often cooperated willingly either through some sort of trade-off or through sheer force. Rarely if ever, had it ever cooperated unwillingly.

The creature with sun-like fur eventually gathered up the carcasses of the fish and gathered its tools. The human hid them beneath its top layer of skin, and looked away from the fish. Blood had never settled well with its container, and though the concept of irony was still very unclear for the Kyubi, it knew enough about it to appreciate circumstances and conditions at such times.

"Stupid pervert better appreciate this," said the human as it walked back, "otherwise he's gonnna regret messing with me."

The Kyubi knew that even if the "pervert" did express some form of human regret, that the boy would not be satisfied with just that. The older human had done something of damage to its human, and now only exacting recompense for its wounds would satisfy the jailor.

It had not always been like this, the Kyubi mused. It had not always been bound by the seal, encroached on all sides by bars and walls, limited so very much by whatever filter kept it from its place in the world. Such things had hardly been of consequence at one time, but that time had passed, and here it was.

The Kyubi did not feel disappointment at the thought. It did not even know what disappointment was yet. There were still leagues to cover for it to begin to understand.

This put it in just about the same place as its human, Naruto.

* * *

_The blond man looked to be yelling. He was kneeling down against the wall, and continuously pounded on the thing, as if blaming it for whatever misfortune brought upon him. His eyes were shut and his face pulled back into a sort of pained grimace, with strange scars marking coloring his image oddly._

_He yelled something, unintelligible but emotional enough to get the meaning._

_A woman with dark hair approached him, her eyes brimming with sadness but her face a slab of stone as she spoke to him. It did not look like she was getting through, but the man's cries seemed to settle as she went on. The woman put a hand on his shoulder, squeezed it briefly as if trying to pour all her thoughts and feelings into him, and then she left._

_The man had settled down enough for him to look at her retreating back. There was a dazed wonder in his eyes, tinged with hurt and gratitude that said many things._

_After a few minutes, a change seemed to occur in him. His eyes, cerulean blue pools of life, sharpened and focused on something. His tears evaporated as he began to take on a calculating look, somehow more vibrant and terrified than his previous state._

_Another woman approached him, walking into the scene as if entering from behind a curtain. She looked to have mixed feelings over whether to address him or not. She had pink hair, and bright green eyes, a combination difficult to forget but easy to hate in people as attractive as her. Her ugly green coat was spattered with splotches of dark red, and she looked as drained as the man did._

_She called to him, but he did not turn to look at her. She did not look offended, and she dared to try again._

_This time he did respond. With a sigh, he flung himself backwards, so that he was lying down on the floor, looking at the ceiling with pleading eyes, as if expecting an answer to be found in the bat guano and polymer light bulbs._

_He was stretched out on the floor, arms wide and accepting towards any answer that could help him in this time._

_The pink-haired lady only gave him a sad smile, before she sat down on the floor beside him. He did not look at her, nor did he even so much as make any motion of gratitude towards the company._

_The two of them talked, and it was clear that meaningless chatter was all they could manage before an awkward silence fell between them. The man wore a robe with red at the hems, but he did not seem to mind the dirt on the obviously expensive clothing. It was likely nothing bothered him too much at that moment._

_The pink-haired one reached out and grasped his hand. She still had that smile, but it had become bitter and tired. She said something else, before she stood up and left him._

* * *

Mirai Makoto sighed as she opened her eyes. Then, blinking tiredly as she looked out the window, she tried to inhale the smell of her breakfast lying on the nearby table.

Mirai would not like to say that she was clairvoyant. That generally implied that she had some form of control over the things she felt. However, it also would not be right to say that she had no control at all.

She sighed again. She always hated receiving bad news.

Getting up, and figuring that it wouldn't be right to stay in her night clothes any longer, Mirai decided to get on with the days preparations.

The Makoto family had always lived in the general vicinity of the sea. It was generally assumed by their elders that the smell of sea water helped in dealing with the frequent migraines they got from their "presents". Fortunately, medicine had advanced beyond mere chants and smelly herbs, so now, all one had to do to get rid of a migraine was to take a pill.

Gargling, and then spitting, Mirai looked at her reflection in the mirror. Straggly red locks stuck to her face by her own sweat, and she idly wondered if she should get a haircut. Looking like this certainly would not help business.

Then again, she hardly needed to look the part anymore.

There was a knock at her door.

"Hey, Mi? You awake in there?"

She threw her toothbrush at the door.

"Good, you got some clients today."

Then the sound of footsteps walking away told her she was alone once again. The redhead wondered why her cousin sometimes went to the trouble of arranging her schedule. She had heard of control freaks and even slept with many of them, but he certainly was not one of them.

Dismissing the subject for later, she stared at her reflection in the mirror, and wondered not for the first time why exactly her little business was so important to so many people.

_'It's because you make them feel important.' _said a little voice in the back of her head.

Regardless of how she really hated the fact that the answer was so damn simple, she knew that that was the case. People came to her, not just for the act in and of itself, but for the plain and simple hope, that to her, they _mattered._

People all over the world know that, outside of their own little bubble they call life, there were billions of people that did not even know they exist. That thought depressed many people, and so, they sought solace in others.

Sometimes though, they wanted to be proven wrong. They wanted to feel as if their existence mattered even to complete strangers, and she made them feel as if it really did.

"Desperate people go for desperate measures." As she always said. People did not really know what they were capable of until there came a time in which they actually found out.

She had comforted so many people over the years she had developed one might call apathy towards everyone's problems. Rape victims, murderers, priestesses, nobles...there was no end to it all. One could say that faced with so many stories would actually have increased her empathetic sense, but this was where her family little secret came into play.

Being a seer had no perks to it at all. Sure, one could try and win the lottery, but the problem was that even if she found out what the winning numbers were, there was no telling if the numbers were actually the right ones. Because when one "saw" the future, they always saw a possible future. The differences between timelines could be something simple like a hairbrush put _here_ instead of _there, _but at the same time, they could be something monstrously huge like the victim actually being the perpetrator. It was a mess.

Whenever she figured out about someone's possible future, she faced the prospect of actually believing it would happen or not.

Moreover, there was always the fact that it indeed had been just a dream. Finding out the family secret did not come with a manual, despite how much she wished it so, and for many years of her life, she took the validity of the things with a grain of salt.

"Gah!" she yelled out, "Why the hell is it that I always get so philosophical in the mornings? Where's my coffee? I need my damn coffee!"

There was a knock at the door; this was different from the one before. It sounded like whoever was knocking was sorry for even doing so.

Mirai cursed to herself. Her bastard cousin would pay for letting in someone so early, before she even got properly dressed.

"Come in!" She invited, smoothly letting go of any anger and resentment in her voice. Years of experience took over her body as she readjusted herself both mentally and physically.

The door opened. It was a girl. She could not even have been more than eighteen.

_'Oh joy,' _thought the prostitute, _'another one.'_

The day went on, and Mirai comforted, indulged, and brought all around niceness to people's lives. Some just wanted sex, others wanted intimacy, but no matter the demand, Mi answered it. There was little room in the business for her wants and needs, but she made them happen.

**End Chapter 2**

Author Notes: Well, this is chapter 2! Huzzah!

Actually I had this chapter written up long before I posted this. It was mostly out of general laziness that I have simply held back on updating this. It's kind of sad, you know but whatever. Thanks to all the people at ADD for helping me with my fic.

For those curious as to the pairings, I'll let it be known that it indeed will be NarutoxKyubi. It just won't be so much of a pairing in the more conventional sense of the word. Anyone can see that though....right?

Whatever. It's late and I'm tired.

Please give any and all feedback you can come up with. I think I've said this once before, but criticism is the lifeblood of the written word. Until next time.


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